This is a blog about the board games my son Tyler and I play, and humorous stories when applicable. We will both give reviews from our perspectives. Spoiler alert: I mostly lose, no matter what the game is.

Friday, May 27, 2016

The Version of Clue Where You Die?

My daughter is obsessed with Harry Potter, so I try to grab every Harry Potter game I can find so we can at least try it. I recently (prior to its current re-release) managed to get a copy of Harry Potter Clue, and all four of us (including my wife) decided to sit down and play. Now, I'm sure most of you have played Clue. In the regular version you are trying to gather information to deduce who the murderer is, what weapon they used, and in what room the murder took place. There are a few changes, and the best way to describe the changes in this version is to read it right from the manufacturer:

This version of the classic Clue game combines the standard clue idea
of going from room to room making suggestions of who, what, and where.
However, this version adds a few new ideas. The first is the ever
changing board. On a players turn s/he roles three dice, two regular
and a special die. The special die has the four houses of Hogwarts on
it. This allows a player to change the layout of the board, by
opening/closing doors, changing the secret passage way, reveling the
dark mark (causing lose of house points), or getting help cards.

The house points are a second change. In this version either a
player can win, or all players can lose and the dark side wins, by
getting all the players house points. House points are lost when the
dark mark appears and a card is reveled from the dark deck. The players
affected must either show a help card that protects them from the dark
deck card, or lose the set number of house points. Dropping to zero
house points causes a player to lose and out of the game.

The other two card types are the third change in the game. There are
help cards that consist of items, allies, and spells. These are used
to combat the second deck, the Dark Deck. The dark deck cards are
revealed when a dark mark appears either on the dice roll, or by moving
the house wheels changing the door layouts. The dark mark card affect
players in specific locations and those players must be able to show the
indicated help cards or lose house points.

All-in-all, the concept is the same as traditional Clue, but the extra
things makes the game just different enough. People that like Clue
and/or Harry Potter should enjoy this version.

Thanks, Parker Bros, but you seemed to kind of skip over the most important part: You die! If you run out of house points, you die. Who could be behind such a devious version of CLUE? Why, none other than one of my favorite game designers, Rob Daviau. Your're probably very familiar with his other work, Betrayal at the House on the Hill, Star Wars Epic Duels, Heroscape, does Pandemic Legacy ring a bell perhaps?So, we settled in for a four-player game. And we rolled a lot of Dark Marks. I, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, was deadeliminated killed by death eaters 10 minutes into the game. Lucky for Hogwarts, my wife was able to solve the mystery before we all diedwe all killed were taken to Azkaban.